A new economic analysis of UK government forecasts finds that expanding Heathrow airport (the UK's largest, located west of London) would displace tens of thousands of jobs from other parts of the country rather than creating net new employment. The New Economics Foundation estimates that by 2050, around 15,200 aviation jobs that would otherwise grow in regional economies — including roughly 9,500 linked to Birmingham airport alone — would shift to Heathrow instead. The findings add political pressure on the project at a sensitive moment, as the government's own peer-reviewed modelling acknowledges that broad regional gains from the expansion cannot be justified by the data, and separate assessments warn of significant health impacts on up to three million people living near the proposed third runway.